From Baguette Costumes to a Bent Eiffel Tower — How Clair Obscur’s Devs Embraced Being Extremely French
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is openly French in style and design, and its makers at Sandfall Interactive leaned into that identity during development and promotion. The 2025 RPG has sold about 5 million copies so far, and the studio has confirmed an upcoming update with a new environment and tougher boss fights. This story summarizes how the game’s French elements were added, how the prologue evolved, and how players responded.
- Overview and sales
- Frenchness in visual design and characters
- Baguette trailer and French voice cast
- Prologue, playable Sophie and emotional beats
- Developer quotes and design choices
- Community reactions and cosplay
Overview and sales
Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launched in 2025 and has sold approximately 5 million copies. The studio was founded by French developers, and that background informed many of the game’s aesthetic and narrative choices. Additionally, Sandfall confirmed a forthcoming update that will add a new environment, challenging boss fights, and other content.
Frenchness in visual design and characters
The game features French-inspired elements such as mimes, red berets, and characters with French names. Sandfall’s team selected names that felt typical for France during writing. For example, the character Francois appears in the story and is friends with the in-game Esquie.
Baguette trailer and French voice cast
Sandfall released a short, self-mocking trailer to announce the French voice cast in October 2024. The trailer shows characters in baguette-themed costumes and was intended as a joke born from marketing discussions.
Prologue, playable Sophie and emotional beats
The prologue takes place in Lumière, a city inspired by French references and including a bent, malformed landmark similar to the Eiffel Tower. Lumière was initially smaller in scope due to technical constraints, and the team expanded it with more NPCs and environmental storytelling so the opening felt alive and narratively engaging.
The opening segment includes interactable trash cans and an NPC who hides in one. That character says, “I turn 33 today. Can you believe my luck?” shortly before the event called the Gommage occurs. The trash-can man and other small interactions were intentionally included to reward players who test obvious objects in the environment.
Sandfall added the ability to control Sophie in the prologue during development. The studio said making Sophie playable helped players form a stronger connection to her before later events in the story.
Developer quotes and design choices
Tom Guillermin, CTO and lead programmer, said, “It’s been an amazing journey.” He also commented on development choices and the emotional intent behind early scenes, saying, “It might be a little bit sadistic, but it’s important to build a genuine connection to the characters.”
COO and producer Francois Meurisse discussed the choice of names: “Oh, that’s a really good question,” and explained the team was “primarily looking for French names that were […] typical French names.” Meurisse added that there was no direct link between the developer and the character Francois, though he said he liked the character’s role in the story.
Regarding the aesthetic choices, Guillermin summarized part of the team’s reasoning: “It would be harder to embrace our Frenchness even more.” Meurisse joked about future possibilities, saying the studio “Could put snails and frogs everywhere in the next game then.”
Community reactions and cosplay
Players responded strongly to the baguette costumes and other visual touches. Sandfall highlighted one community response involving Expedition 60 cosplay at Dragon Con in Atlanta, where a large group appeared in red berets and themed costumes. Meurisse called those posts a shared highlight and thanked the cosplayers.
The team also noted collectible journals in the game that reveal backstory for past expeditions, including Expedition 60 and other in-game events. They mentioned that the “naked expedition” is one of the more memorable, offbeat entries in those collectibles.
Sandfall referenced fan posts and cosplay on social media, including the Reddit thread about Expedition 60 cosplayers:
